The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) has launched NG112, an initiative that will help European countries modernize the technology used by emergency dispatch centers. Springboarding off of efforts in the United States with NG911, EENA hopes to bring about a technical infrastructure that will enable emergency calls through technologies such as IoT devies and video calls from smartphones.
From the perspective of a 9-1-1 professional in the United States, it is always interesting to watch from afar how other countries implement live saving technologies and how to approach challenges in their own communities. PSAPs strive to understand the standards being developed to govern NG911 and learn about the possibilities of the myriad of devices that the public use to communicate with one another. We should also be looking at how these personal devices can best help emergency services. One interesting take from NG112’s announcement is that not only are they looking at how citizens can make an emergency call from such devices, but can these devices be accessed by the PSAP to send out emergency broadcast messages such as those that are made by mass-dialing systems to notify citizens to evacuate or shelter in place.
Cristina Lumbreras, EENA
“We’re looking at smart cities, connected cars, IoT, and other things that might be of use to emergency services.”
PSAPs are concerned about how new technologies will impact call volume and individual task workload. But if we starting viewing them from a higher vantage point, we may be able to see how PSAPs can utilize those technologies to their own benefit to improve current operations thus lessening their overall impact.
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